Made in Japan--Gonin-Ish "Muge no Hito"10/15/2012 2:30:07 PM by David L

Writing this Made In Japan column certainly brings back memories for me of all the weekly gigs I use to attend up in Tokyo about 10 years ago or so. One of my favorite live houses to go to was called Meguro Live House and I’ve seen many excellent underground bands play there throughout the years. However, one band in particular that stands out in my memory is Gonin-Ish. Amongst the noise and brutal death metal bands in the underground Japanese metal scene, Gonin-Ish go against the grain with their brand of progressive death metal. With all of the bands trying their best to be brutal and fast as possible, Gonin-Ish adds the progressive metal/rock elements to their music – creating an awesome blend of heaviness, melody, and epic song lengths.

Gonin-Ish (meaning basically, five people uniting to create music), are a 5-piece powerhouse that features Anoji Matsuoka – the band rhythm guitarist and singer. She can wail away at clean vocals just as good as she deliver death metal style vokills. All the other band members are masters of their craft and their onslaught of talent must be seen live to be believed.

The song in the video below is one of my favorites by Gonin-Ish. It is called Muge no Hito and it comes from their 2008 sophomore album (available from Season of Mist). This 9 minute 25 second song starts with a Dream Theater-like intro and then kicks in to blasting progressive riff. The song is filled with many tempo changes as well as vocal changes from Anoji. I hope everyone enjoys this track and if so, check out the other videos they have available on YouTube.\m/ --Grim